Lapel Mic Feedback

pistonsvox

Shtury folk...

Just wondering has anyone mastered lapel mic feedback in small venue environments? No matter how much I cut frequencies on the graphic there's always gonna be another feeding frequency.... Since the lapel mics are to the right of the room and beneath the right speaker i've tried reducing feedback by panning the mics hard left. Still dont get enough decent volume from them... and there's always gonna be a nasty hum.

What could I do?

PaulBrewer

Lapel mics are invariably Omnidirectional, therefore unsuitable for general music use.

Being Omni the mic is effectively pointing at the PA all the time, no matter it's orientation.

slavedave

A few no cost/low cost solutions (possibly):
*Get the lapel mic nearer to the source - I know that sounds obvious but it is the most simple solution. Even an inch or two can make noticeable improvements.
*We use to use lavalier mics in a gymnasium for spoken word/vocals and when we moved to a headset mic the difference was dramatic. There are cheap earset / headset mics on ***y for under 30 euro that can be fed into a mixer (most via a pre-amp/power supply box). The capsule sits right next to your mouth so gain levels are much lower giving you far greater control over feedback.
*In stage scenarios, some sound guys hide the lapel / lavalier mics in wigs (big hair-do's or clothing so that they are nearer to the source).
*If the source does not move around too much, a shotgun style mic MAY work.
*Move the speakers further forward in front of the source - for every doubling of distance from a speaker you get a 6dB drop in gain, so moving speakers forward of the mic can help significantly (esp if you don't need monitoring).

pistonsvox

They're for live artist interviews in the studio, i'm aware that they're omnidirectional alright I just thought the further the speaker is away, the less chance of feedback! Also when the 4 mics are open, there's more chance of ambient humming that I cant get rid of in the mix unless I gate the track or cut until the artist is speaking.

I use the headset thing for the host, which works great! Lapels for artists though. I've also tried using a shot gun mic, but that also produces a nasty hum:(

madtheory

A likely cause of hum is that your mic pre cannot deliver enough current. If it's a Firewire device, that's a distinct possibility.

pistonsvox

Sorry when I say hum its the low and low mid frequency reflections in the room, I do highpass the mics to about 100hz but I dont want to highpass them so much as there is no body to the persons voice